Epileptic discharges from single cortical neurons under the effect of strychnine were found to be accompanied by prolonged depolarization of the neuronal membrane. This was expected except that the depolarization was found to last for as long as 2,020 msec. The experiment also suggests that under these conditions the inhibitory mechanisms in the cortex were blocked or suppressed and that the prolonged depolarization with high-frequency spike discharges was triggered by impulses initiated in the centrum medianum-para-fascicularis complex of the thalamus.